Hello, hello, and welcome back to another episode of Primarily Scripture. I'm your host, Cindy Young, and I am so happy you're here with me today. We follow Come Follow Me, and I show you tips and tricks that will help you to study the scriptures more effectively on your own. That means we don't go into all of the doctrine that is taught each week in Come Follow Me. You can do that with your family, with your class. Here we're talking about what we can do in order to study more effectively on our own. So I'm just gonna show you some easy things that you can do. This week we are in Doctrine and Covenants sections 89... oh, I should have written this down... sections 89 through 92, and this includes the Word of Wisdom. If you've been in the church for any amount of time, you know what the Word of Wisdom is. It's the Lord's law of health that tells us to not use tobacco and that we should eat healthy foods, things like that. So today, I wanna talk about a study tip. I want you to try to learn about Jesus every time you read the scriptures. Every single time, okay? What do you do when the verses you're reading don't seem to talk about Jesus Christ? In section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants, it might seem like it doesn't talk about Jesus. It's not specifically teaching you about who Jesus is, but it's a great opportunity still for you to learn about him. So we're going to look at verses one through four, which are not teaching about who he is and what he did, but we can still learn about him. I'll show you what I mean. Turn with me to section 89. Verse one says, "A word of wisdom for the benefit of the council of High Priests assembled in Kirtland, and the church, and also the Saints in Zion." Is there anything there about Jesus is? You might be tempted to say no, but guess what? There is something there that we can learn about the Savior. I'm going to pick a color to mark with, and you know me, I love to use yellow when I'm marking about the Savior. So while this doesn't talk exactly about what he did when he was here on Earth, this verse is the Savior speaking to Joseph Smith and to all of us. Because it's him talking we can still learn about him by the way he talks and the things that he says. So what is he telling us in this one? I see that he likes to share wisdom with us, so I'm just going to highlight wisdom, and then on my journal sheet, I'm going to start writing down things that I've learned about Jesus Christ from these verses. Okay. So the Lord wants to share his wisdom with us. Let's keep going. What did we learn in verse two?

"to be sent by greeting, not by commandment or constraint..." okay, did you know that the Word of Wisdom was not a commandment when it was first given? Did you know that drinking alcohol and using tobacco especially, those are very addictive things, and at the time when this was given, many of the men in the church were using tobacco on a regular basis. In fact, it was all the cigarette smoke and the tobacco spit on the floor that made Emma Smith ask Joseph Smith if this was really a good thing to be doing, and then we got the Word of Wisdom. So the Lord understood that they would have a hard time giving up their tobacco immediately. That would be so hard for them. The Lord understands, and so he gave grace. He gave them a period of time to figure it out and to start to break those bad habits. Eventually then he did say it is a commandment for us. But what does this teach us about the Lord? He's so willing to give people a chance. He doesn't expect perfection from us right away. And I love that. Do you see how we're learning this about Jesus from this verse? This verse doesn't say, Jesus will give you a chance to figure things out, but we learned it, didn't we? That's so great."Not by commandment," even though it is a commandment now, that teaches us something. All right, let's move on to the next part in this verse. It says, "showing forth the order and will of God in the temporal salvation of all Saints." What is temporal? Do you know what that is? Temporal means physical, the things that are here, not the spiritual and eternal, but temporal meaning related to earth. So he wants to show us the order and will of God in the temporal salvation- how we should use our bodies. He wants to teach us what to do! Ah, I love that about my Savior. Let's go on to verse three and see what else we can learn.

"given for a principle with promise." He gives us promises?! As he's telling us what to do, he gives us promises to go with that? That is amazing. That says a lot about someone. Have you ever been told what to do and also gotten a promise that you would get something special if you did it? That makes all the difference, doesn't it? You are so much more likely to want to follow the rules if you know the rewards that's coming at the end. If you clean your bedroom, then we'll go to the movies. If you save your money, we'll be able to go on a special trip. The Lord does that for us too because he understands that it helps us want to obey and he wants to give us blessings. Awesome. Alright. What else does it say in verse three? It says this."Adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all Saints." Okay, so the Word of Wisdom can be followed by the weakest of all Saints. That's what he's telling us. This isn't just for the people who have everything together and run their lives perfectly. This isn't just for the people who have the very most willpower. This is for everyone. Everyone! That means that you can follow the Word of Wisdom. Doesn't matter how hard it has been for you in the past, you can do it now. And the Lord is promising us that. Oh, isn't that amazing that he was thinking about all of us, even the weakest person, that this is for them? And when I say them, I mean me, right? Because I feel like I'm so weak sometimes. Each of us will have moments when we are weak, and we struggle to obey and to follow. But the Word of Wisdom has been given to us with a promise that even the weakest can still follow. And I love that about my Savior, that he's thinking of me and each of us in our weakness and still giving us things that we can follow. Let's go onto verse four. It says this, "behold verily, thus sayeth the Lord unto you, in consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you and I forewarn you by giving unto you this Word of Wisdom by revelation." Okay? So he's telling us a little bit more about why he's giving this to us. It's in consequence of the evils of the last days. Do you know what evils he's talking about? Can you think of anything in the last days that's in our world today that the Word of Wisdom will protect you from? Drugs and alcohol and cigarettes and vaping? All these things are so dangerous for our bodies. And there are people out there who will invite you to use them. And if someone invites you, Hey, come on over and have a cigarette with me, you'll be able to say no because you were warned by the Lord. And it's not just tobacco and alcohol that we need to stay safe from. There are so many unhealthy things that we could put into our bodies, and sometimes I eat unhealthy. I really do. But because I have been warned about these things. I can eat healthy most of the time, and I can eat those special treats in moderation. So I love that the Lord wants to warn us. And what does forewarn mean? Do you know what forewarn means? Forewarn means to warn you in advance. You don't even see the danger coming, so I'm going to give you a heads up. That's pretty amazing that the Lord wants to warn us and keep us safe in advance. He says, I see dangers ahead and I'm gonna help you to stay safe. I told you that a lot of these men were smoking and were chewing tobacco. Did you know that they didn't know that it was unhealthy? They had no idea. They thought it was great. It was less than a hundred years ago that there were commercials telling people that smoking was healthy, it was a great way to lose weight, it was a great way to not eat too much sugar. You can just have a cigarette instead. And a lot of people believed that, but members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had been forewarned that that was not a good thing to do. It wasn't healthy. And years later when they figured out that people were getting cancer from cigarettes, members of the church who had been obedient to the Word of Wisdom were already protected and safe. We have no idea what will be learned in the future, but we do know we will always be safe when we follow the Lord's guidance. Okay, so we can learn a lot about the Lord's Law of Health by studying this section. But what did we learn about Jesus Christ himself? I'm gonna go to my notes. We learned that he wants to share his wisdom with us, that he gives us the opportunity to change, that he wants to teach us about his ways. He gives us promises, and he is aware of all of us, even the weakest of us, he is aware and trying to help us. He will warn us and keep us safe from danger. That is a lot. You know what else I learned from this? That he loves us so much. And it's just another example of how much he loves each of us and wants us to stay safe. So as you study the scriptures, try to look for truths about Jesus Christ every single time you study. As you do that, you'll bring power into your scriptures and you will gain a stronger testimony of who Jesus Christ is and what he has done for you and what he continues to do for you every single day. Because if you're reading this today, then he's giving it to you today. Isn't that a powerful thing?! That if you are reading the scriptures today and the Holy Ghost testifies to you of its truth today, then Jesus Christ is teaching you this today, because he loves you today and always. So go study your scriptures and always try to learn about Jesus. I'm Cindy Young, and this has been Primarily Scripture. See you next time! Thanks for tuning into primarily Scripture with Cindy Young. 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